r with their soft, almost
noiseless, wings.

"But I assure you I am a white rabbit," replied Bumper. "Come and look at
me."

This challenge seemed fair, and some of the smaller bats approached
nearer, but the leader warned them back. "Keep away! It's the Sewer Rat in
disguise. It's a trick of his to catch you."

"Is the Sewer Rat white?" interrupted Bumper.

"No, not unless he's been whitewashed or been sleeping in a barrel of
flour."

Bumper had to smile at this, for he recalled once how a big rat had been
caught in a bag of flour by the old woman who kept rabbits, and his hair
was as white as that of the whitest rabbit.

"I can assure you, Mr. Bat, I haven't been whitewashed, and I haven't been
sleeping in flour. Look at my ears. Does Mr. Sewer Rat have long ears like
mine?"

"No, but he could disguise them by using pieces of white paper. I wouldn't
trust him a minute."

In desperation, Bumper then added: "But look at my tail! Did a Sewer Rat
or any other kind of a Rat have a tail like mine?"

"Where is it?" asked the big Bat. "I don't see any tail at all. All
rabbits have white tails, and you haven't any at all."

Bumper wagged the stump of tail that he thought would convince the bats,
but for a moment, he wasn't exactly sure that he saw it himself. Instead
of a white, fluffy stub of a tail as soft as cotton, he saw the dirtiest,
blackest wad of hair waving in the air that had ever disgraced a rabbit.
The truth flashed upon his mind in an instant. What he had supposed to be
the blindness of the bats was nothing more than a most natural
circumstance.

He was so black with the dust and mud of the drain-pipe that it was
misleading to call himself a white rabbit. He was far from it. He was as
dark as any wild rabbit of the woods--darker, in fact, for there was no
white fur under his stomach or around his stubby tail.

He was so confused by this discovery that he could not find his tongue to
make reply. The Bats, accepting his silence as proof that his deception
had been found out, suddenly beat their wings and set up a terrible
uproar.

"It's the Sewer Rat in disguise!" shouted the big leader of the Bats. "Now
we'll punish him! Drive him out of the sewer! Peck out his eyes!"

Bumper stopped just long enough to realize that he had no chance in a
fight against all those whirring wings and little gnashing teeth. If he
was to escape at all, he had to get a start on the bats. Even though
flight seemed to co